Two different kinds of coffee hard candy. United Coffee Candy is from Thailand and the candies are little, flat rectangles and the Bali’s Best are from Indonesia (Bali) and are circular. Both have similar ingredients - leading with Sugar, then Glucose Syrup with Bali’s Best adding a little dried milk and then both round it out with coffee powder and oil. Pretty simple, and both get it absolutey right.

Each of them are crisp and densely rich. Sweet but with a robust and full sweet coffee flavor. Bali’s is just a little creamier because of the milk powder, but it also has a little more of a bitter twang to it.

Though the shapes are different, each are individually wrapped in sealed pouches.

Both are definitely keepers, something I’ll keep in the car or my purse or even the desk drawer. Easy to share and since I’m the type who likes to crunch her hard candies, these are very satisfying with a toffee consistency.

Nougat is tough stuff to define. Some nougat is light and fluffy, others are crackly, sticky toffee-like candy. This is the latter. The little bricks are hard and crack when you smack them on the corner of a table. You can easily bite off a third of it and after it gets warm in your mouth is has a nice give for chewing.

Think of the nougat chips that you have in a Toblerone bar ... these are like that only with a very strong butter flavor instead of honey and peanuts.

I like the consistency and fresh flavor. The Milk Nougats are also wrapped in that fantabulous edible rice cellophane. However, after chewing them down to the last little bit, a very strong and artificial butter flavor erupts. Like the that artificially flavored butter you get in bad movie theater popcorn. It doesn’t go well with the delicate vanilla of the nougat or the hearty peanuts.

I’m a huge nougat fan, I love the stuff from Italy (torrones) and the French nougats (both soft and hard) and was a bit disappointed with the unpleasant butter taste to these. Alas, that’s affected my rating. I’ll give other Chinese nougats a try if I run across the, as everything else, including the packaging and tiny bite size of these is excellent. Also, the price can’t be beat. European nougats are often over $5 a pound.

I’ve gotten the impression that some of those who come to the Candy Blog are curious about Turkish Delight. I’ve already detailed my impressions of The Ginger People’s Ginger Delight. Today’s review is of a more traditional Turkish Delight.

But first a little background from the back of the package:

An old Turkish aphorism tells one to “eat sweetly and speak sweetly”. Sweets have always been an important component of Turkish cuisine. The origin of Lokum - Turkish Delight - dates back to the time of the Ottoman Empire. A part of Turkish culture for centuries, the recipe has remained virtually unchanged from its inception.

A whimsical tale tells of the creation of Turkish Delight: In an attempt to appease his many wives, a famous Sultan ordered his confectioner to create a unique sweet. Eager to please his Sultan, the confectioner blended a concoction of sugar syrup, various flavorings, nuts and dried fruits then bound them together with mastic (gum arabic). After many attempts, the delicately scented and sugary sweet Lokum - better known in the West as Turkish Delight - was created. The Sultan was so taken by this elegant new creation that he appointed the sweet maker the court’s Chief Confectioner. Thereafter a plate of Lokum was served at daily feast in the Ottoman Court.

Lokum was unveiled to the west in the 19th century. During his travels to Istanbul, an unknown British traveler became very fond of the Turkish delicacies, purchased cases of Lokum and he shipped them to Britain under the name Turkish Delight. Today, Turkish Delight remains the sweet of choice in many Turkish homes. Enjoyed world wide, the subtle flavours of Turkish Delight finely compliment coffee and sweeten the breath at the end of a meal. Traditionally offered at Christmas in the West, Turkish Delight is becoming increasingly popular as a confection to be enjoyed year-round.

Most Turkish Delight I’ve had in the past was coated in a mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar, which makes it rather messy and though it’s a pretty bland coating, it does make for a sweet coating. Turkish Delight is generally flavored with scents - light and aromatic scents. In the past I’ve had Orange Blossom, Rosewater and Lemon.

This traditional Hazelnut Turkish Delight from Sultan is coated in coconut, which keeps the cubes from sticking together or to your fingers but also adds a wonderful nutty/chewy texture to the delicate sugar paste and hazelnuts (filberts).

Turkish Delight is probably not a treat for everyone. It’s not really a “snackable” treat where you can take it to a movie and pop them in your mouth. It’s more like something you’d put out with some nice cookies on a plate with some delicate tea.

The drab outside package featured rather drab pictures of the fruits flavored within. After opening there were over a dozen little individually wrapped gummies - each in a pretty colored wrapper with a fruit shaped gummy within. You can pretty much improve you enjoyment of these by dumping them from that outside bag. The fruits are pineapple, orange, strawberry, lychee and melon. The orange ones are cute little slices the size of an actual tangerine slice and the pineapples (also pictured) are tiny little pineapples.

Unlike the German-style gummies, these are a little sticky on the outside, which makes the individual packaging necessary. Biting into them, they’re less rubbery than gummies as well, but have that same great chewy-but-not-sticky texture that you find in a firm gelatin. The flavor is really intense, very fragrant. But, while the pineapple smells really good and is sweet, it has not tang to it. There is no sour associated with these gummies at all - they’re all sweet and perfume.

I found it refreshing and really pleasant, while I think I’d prefer them with a bit of a bite to them, the flavor is so dense I can see why they went this way. The package heralds that they’re made with real fruit juices and pretty much nothing else but that and some gelatin/pectin and sugar.

These are one of the oddest things I’ve bought in ages. Made from pumpkin seeds, corn syrup and green tea concentrate they’re little bricks of pumkin seed brittle.

They look a bit strange, very green like they’re made from seaweed or something. And they smell like, well, green tea and pumpkin seeds - which is not exactly an enticing combo. But the simplicity of it and the unique essence of pumpkin and green tea is really nice. They actually look like the picture on the package.

They’re pretty good for snacking and not terribly sweet. They’re mostly pumkin seeds, so it’s very filling. The biggest drawback really is the price. At four bucks for about a third of a pound, they’re pretty pricy for something that I usually throw out when carving a pumpkin.